(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for providing information about a parking space, and more particularly, a method and system for providing information about a parking space through communication between vehicles that provides information about a parking space.
(b) Description of the Related Art
As known in the art, many cities have insufficient parking spaces for the large number of vehicles in the city. Drivers often must search for an empty parking place, when parking at a department store, a parking lot of a large mart, a residential street crowded with vehicles, a downtown, and a side street.
Department stores and large marts are equipped with systems for providing information about parking spaces, such as informing drivers of the number of empty parking spaces on each floor or in each line. However, a system for providing information about parking spaces does not exist on residential streets, side streets, or downtown in a crowded city. Despite available parking spaces in these areas, it may be difficult to provide and manage accurate information about parking spaces, even if systems are constructed in those areas.
The parking management systems in large buildings such as a department store use a technology that recognizes information on an empty parking space through radio frequency identification (RFID), an image, or other sensors, and provides drivers with information through an electric bulletin board. Those systems require many sensors that sense location information and vehicle information in the parking facility and a server that manages the sensors.
On the other hand, an unparked status communication system between a plurality of vehicles has been developed. However, the system transmits unparked information only for a predetermined time or only from predetermined distance during parking, it cannot provide information about parking spaces that have been empty for a longer period of time. Further, the system cannot provide information to a vehicle out of the communication area because it uses only 1-hop communication.
The above information disclosed in this section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.